Nature Notes
Why do rattlesnakes rattle and hummingbirds hum?
How do flowers market themselves to pollinators?
Why do tarantulas cross the road?
Nature Notes investigates questions like these about the natural world of the Chihuahuan Desert region and the Llano Estacado. Through interviews with scientists and field recordings, this Marfa Public Radio original series reveals the secrets of desert life.
Join host Dallas Baxter for new episodes on each week on Thursdays. Episodes are written and produced by Andrew Stuart and edited by Marfa Public Radio and the Sibley Nature Center in Midland, Texas.
Nature Notes is supported by Shield-Ayres Foundation.
Latest Episodes
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Reviving streams means addressing the root causes of their decline. A new initiative aims to do just that by restoring the high grasslands where these desert lifelines begin. -
What archeologists call the “Goggle-Eye Entity” was painted or pecked at hundreds of sites in the desert borderlands, by a prehistoric people known as the Jornada Mogollon.
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The “ghost prints” of White Sands National Park are among the century's most remarkable archeological discoveries. And new findings strengthen the case that these Chihuahuan Desert footprints are also the oldest evidence of people in the Americas.
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Big Bend National Park is a place of wonders today. But its past includes equal wonders, and at the top of that list are its vanished dinosaurs.
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There's nothing more wondrous in a desert country than flowing water. But modern human activities have had stark effects on West Texas streams and creeks. Now, there's a new initiative to restore them.
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West Texas today is high and dry. But long ago it was beneath a shallow sea. In "Dinosaurs and Other Ancient Animals of Big Bend," the book's authors guide readers into the region's singular fossil record — including the teeming life of this ancient ocean.
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Our region's vistas are iconic, but its desert scent — especially after a rain — is just as distinctive. Renowned writer Gary Nabhan will speak on the fragrances of the Chihuahua desert at Marfa's Crowley theater.
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Big Bend National Park has a singular fossil record, spanning 130 million years. In "Dinosaurs and Other Ancient Animals of Big Bend,” that epic story is told, bringing vanished creatures, and vanished worlds, to life.
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The West Texas sky island mountains sustain wondrous biodiversity, but there's one particularly graceful being concealed here: Populus tremuloides, the trembling aspen. New research into West Texas aspens could shed light on their history, and on the continent-wide story of this iconic species.
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Jennifer Bristol's new book, “Cemetery Birding," takes readers into the bittersweet beauty of these reflective places. Bristol is the keynote speaker at this year's sold-out Davis Mountains Hummingbird Celebration.
